January 7, 2011

Federal Deficit in First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2011: $371 Billion

The federal budget deficit was $371 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, CBO estimates in its latest Monthly Budget Review, $18 billion less than the shortfall in the same period of fiscal year 2010. Revenues were 9 percent higher than they were a year ago, whereas outlays were only 3 percent higher. [...]

Revenues through December totaled about $531 billion [...] CBO estimates that spending for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 totaled $902 billion, up $26 billion from outlays in the same period last year. [...]

Compared with spending in the same period last year, defense spending was 7 percent higher, and net interest on the public debt rose by 10 percent, reflecting the substantial growth in debt in the past year. Outlays for major entitlement programs grew at varying rates during the first quarter of fiscal year 2011. Spending for Medicaid increased by 13 percent. Spending for Social Security and Medicare grew more slowly—by 4 percent and by less than one percent, respectively, adjusted for timing shifts. Expenditures for unemployment benefits decreased by 15 percent because of a decline in the number of claims and because average benefits were lower than they had been a year before.